My only try so far was a small wooden panel covered with speckled Japanese paper paper and several layers of natural yellow beeswax, into which I incorporated a thin piece of dried seaweed(the kind used to wrap sushi), and a red dogwood leaf. Finally, I laid on ragged pieces of gold leaf and burnished them in, added a narrow strip of copper foil, scored straight lines with a toothed wheel and a circle with a compass, which I filled with black oil paint. Finally, I rubbed some deep reddish oil paints on with my finger, and polished the whole surface with a soft cloth. Basic, but not too bad:
The encaustics need a solid rigid absorbant support. A wood panel can work, or masonite. They even make a special White Primed Encaustiboard in small sizes. I will have to make my own boards, and that should be a lot cheaper.
So I went by Lowes and got two sheets of plain brown Masonite($8 each), and had them cut together in half 3 times to make 16 roughly 24"x 24" panels. Then I had then cut 4 of these in half twice to make sixteen 12" x 12" panels. The cuts were not very precise, so I actually ended up with everything from 11.5" to 12". I then went by Home Depot and got a dozen 8 ft primed 1x2 Trim Boards($3.52 each).
I made a dozen of panels 11.5" x11.5". I used acid free Yes Paste to glue acid free paper to them rather than white gesso.
I wanted to start with a Test Panel for "Mug Shots", so I designed a simplified square mockup image in Photoshop with the same colors and textures:
I tried a number of ways to create a well defined black nude image on a white background, inverting the original, layering it with black and using Hard Light mix, etc.. The best looking was obtained using one of the Solarisation Filters in Topaz, with some additional curves and burning in:
I printed it on two different kinds of Japanese calligraphy paper. One has to tape both ends of the light weight paper to a sheet of regular paper in order to run it through the printer.
Not wanting to "mess up" one of my new boards for my first try, I started practicing on just a sheet of paper, and ended up taking it all the way to a "sort of finished test", that I am not really satisfied with. I showed it to Rachel, and her judgment fell guillotine like: "I don't like it, it's too garish!"
She is totally right of course. I have to admit it is a long way from the mockup, there are too many colors, the yellow and green drips are too sharp, the texture lacks sophistication. But it is only a first test, and I really learned a great deal doing it.
Starting with a plain sheet of paper, I brushed on a coat of bright blue medium and a coat of red ochre medium, both mixed from piments. I kept adding random touches of medium with brushes in yellow ochre, green, red, red ochre, blue, and a deep transparent ultramarine blue mixed from an oil stick, building up layer upon layer, fusing them lightly and scraping back. Then I cut grooves in the wax all the way back to the white paper, filled them with a blue, a deep marron, and yellow ochre, and scraped the wax back to get neat straight stripes. I then worked over the whole surface to smooth it, scraping lightly with a wide blade, fusing, and finally scribbling over it with a white oil stick. I fused the surface again very lightly to keep the white lines from running. While the wax was still soft, I pressed the images of the nude into it, burnished it, and fused it lightly. I realized at this point that my Japanese paper did not quite become transparent and disappear as I was expecting, but remained textured and visible. Fortunately, I had torn the edges, so it looks OK. I printed the two red waX seals and the little scapular on Japanese paper, cut them out carefully, pressed and burnished them into the surface, and fused them lightly. They ended up melting too much in the background.
I noticed that if I held it to the light, the colors glowed like stained glass, so I started brainstorming about mounting encaustic paintings in front of a light box. I had a roll of RGR LED lights around, so I made one. Rachel still finds it too garish, but I love the stained glass like glow. The blues and reds make me think of Chartres. It is difficult to render light in photographs, and it looks better than the picture:
Strangely, the specks of yellow and green that I don't like disappear when the paper is backlit, and the texture becomes smoother and more interesting. The transparency of the pigmented medium and its thickness are critical, and the colors would be even richer if the painting was done on frosted glass or plexiglass instead of barely translucent paper. Having worked with light for the past five years, I am obviously interested in researching this unexpected possibility further. I found two deep 11"x11" shadowboxes on sale at Michaels, and will test the proposition using a roll of string lights in them.
Out of curiosity, I Googled "lighted encaustic paintings", and actually found very little, except for a guy named Scott Reilly who does colorful abstract encaustics on plexiglass lighted by fluorescents:
The work is handsome, but unlike anything I would do. Some pieces are quite large though, up to 42"x 96".
So I went by Lowes and got two sheets of plain brown Masonite($8 each), and had them cut together in half 3 times to make 16 roughly 24"x 24" panels. Then I had then cut 4 of these in half twice to make sixteen 12" x 12" panels. The cuts were not very precise, so I actually ended up with everything from 11.5" to 12". I then went by Home Depot and got a dozen 8 ft primed 1x2 Trim Boards($3.52 each).
I made a dozen of panels 11.5" x11.5". I used acid free Yes Paste to glue acid free paper to them rather than white gesso.
I wanted to start with a Test Panel for "Mug Shots", so I designed a simplified square mockup image in Photoshop with the same colors and textures:
Not wanting to "mess up" one of my new boards for my first try, I started practicing on just a sheet of paper, and ended up taking it all the way to a "sort of finished test", that I am not really satisfied with. I showed it to Rachel, and her judgment fell guillotine like: "I don't like it, it's too garish!"
She is totally right of course. I have to admit it is a long way from the mockup, there are too many colors, the yellow and green drips are too sharp, the texture lacks sophistication. But it is only a first test, and I really learned a great deal doing it.
Starting with a plain sheet of paper, I brushed on a coat of bright blue medium and a coat of red ochre medium, both mixed from piments. I kept adding random touches of medium with brushes in yellow ochre, green, red, red ochre, blue, and a deep transparent ultramarine blue mixed from an oil stick, building up layer upon layer, fusing them lightly and scraping back. Then I cut grooves in the wax all the way back to the white paper, filled them with a blue, a deep marron, and yellow ochre, and scraped the wax back to get neat straight stripes. I then worked over the whole surface to smooth it, scraping lightly with a wide blade, fusing, and finally scribbling over it with a white oil stick. I fused the surface again very lightly to keep the white lines from running. While the wax was still soft, I pressed the images of the nude into it, burnished it, and fused it lightly. I realized at this point that my Japanese paper did not quite become transparent and disappear as I was expecting, but remained textured and visible. Fortunately, I had torn the edges, so it looks OK. I printed the two red waX seals and the little scapular on Japanese paper, cut them out carefully, pressed and burnished them into the surface, and fused them lightly. They ended up melting too much in the background.
I noticed that if I held it to the light, the colors glowed like stained glass, so I started brainstorming about mounting encaustic paintings in front of a light box. I had a roll of RGR LED lights around, so I made one. Rachel still finds it too garish, but I love the stained glass like glow. The blues and reds make me think of Chartres. It is difficult to render light in photographs, and it looks better than the picture:
Strangely, the specks of yellow and green that I don't like disappear when the paper is backlit, and the texture becomes smoother and more interesting. The transparency of the pigmented medium and its thickness are critical, and the colors would be even richer if the painting was done on frosted glass or plexiglass instead of barely translucent paper. Having worked with light for the past five years, I am obviously interested in researching this unexpected possibility further. I found two deep 11"x11" shadowboxes on sale at Michaels, and will test the proposition using a roll of string lights in them.
Out of curiosity, I Googled "lighted encaustic paintings", and actually found very little, except for a guy named Scott Reilly who does colorful abstract encaustics on plexiglass lighted by fluorescents:
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